It’s not exactly a great start to your driving career – amassing penalty points on your licence before you’ve even passed your practical driving test. Alas, thanks to research carried out by car insurance company Tempcover, we now know just how many learner drivers are risking their provisional licence.

Tempcover’s Freedom of Information request to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) unearthed that over 192,000 budding drivers have received points over the past four years (between 2022 and 2025) – but that’s not actually the worst news.

Even more sobering is that it marks a shocking increase of more than 44% over those four years, from 37,118 in 2022 to 53,502 in 2025.

The top three most common offences over the past four years are:

  • 52,748 offences – Driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence (LC20): Think driving without L plates or without a qualified supervising driver.
  • 50,013 offences – Using a vehicle uninsured against third-party risks (IN10).
  • 44,452 offences – Exceeding the statutory speed limit on a public road (SP30).

The big question

While Tempcover’s research makes for hugely concerning reading, what are the reasons for the dramatic increase? There are several theories being touted by experts:

  • Test Delays: The well-documented issues of seriously long waiting times for practical driving tests are pushing learners to find other ways to gain driving experience outside of formal lessons. This means more and more learners are turning to parents, relatives and others for informal practice. While private practice is vital to building your experience, it should not be seen as an alternative – at the end of the day, a driving instructor remains essential to making you a safer, more confident driver.
  • Rule Misunderstanding or Neglect: Also, with private practice becoming more common, it appears many learners – and their supervising drivers – either do not fully understand or are failing to comply with the strict legal conditions that come with a provisional licence. This includes having the right insurance or ensuring whoever is supervising you is allowed to – check out these tips to make sure you stay on the right side of the law.

Pointed problem

Penalty points are a particular problem for learners, too. While qualified and experienced drivers must hit 12 points or more on their licence to receive a ban, newly qualified drivers can only amass six on their licence within the first two years of driving before they risk having their licence revoked and are forced to take their theory and practical driving tests all over again.

That means there are tens of thousands of learners who already have points on their provisional licence – and have next to no wiggle room for making errors once they are qualified.

 

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Main image by Nano Banana Pro